The Value of Historic Preservation for Ann Arbor

One of the strengths of Ann Arbor as a community is its active historic preservation infrastructure. Here is what the Ann Arbor Preservation Alliance has to say about that (from a recently published brochure, attached here with permission).

Vibrant downtown streets and lively neighborhoods, laced with a rich diversity of 19th and 20th century historic buildings, provide the backdrop to the sense of place Ann Arborites love and the quality of life they enjoy.

Since 1975, when Ann Arbor’s city council declared historic preservation a “public purpose,” citizens have helped create historic districts and advocated for the restoration and rehabilitation of historic structures in commercial districts and residential neighborhoods.

In recent years, historic preservation has become controversial, as it has come up against development pressures. While historic preservation does not prevent development, it institutes a review process and also makes demolition of structures in a district more difficult.

The importance of historic preservation to maintaining the integrity of areas with historic structures was never so apparent as recently, with the tragic chain of events leading to the destruction of seven historic houses in one of our city’s near-downtown neighborhoods. The value of these Central Area neighborhoods to developers is a strong incentive.

As we outlined in detail in our previous post, Heritage City Place Row, there are many community-wide reasons to maintain such structures. One is, simply, economics. There are more and more discussions of “placemaking” and the importance of “quality of life” to attracting “talent”, young professionals who will enrich us all by joining new start-up enterprises. The tourism industry also recognizes the importance of historic areas in attracting visitors. Here’s what we said about that in our previous post:

Perhaps most telling in these difficult times is the argument that all of Ann Arbor stands to lose economic benefit from the destruction of this attractive area. Donovan Rypkema, who has spoken in Ann Arbor and many other places on the economic benefits of historic preservation, makes the point that over time the most successful urban areas (i.e. those that attract people who will lift the economic climate) are those that maintain historic and architecturally significant structures. They are part of the “quality of life” indicators that attract innovators, young entrepreneurial and creative people who will help the region be successful. Ask yourself: what do you see first in pictures of “lovely Ann Arbor” that seek to entice visitors and investors? You’ll see pictures of our historic Main Street with maybe the Law Quad thrown in.

Unfortunately, the saga of City Place shows that sometimes the story just doesn’t end well. The City Council failed on several attempts to establish a historic district for the area. The seven contiguous historic houses on South Fifth Avenue just south of William were demolished and two large apartment buildings that will probably house mostly students are now under construction. Almost the entire block of that historic neighborhood has been replaced. (Photos of the seven demolished houses are on the previous post.)

This is now the uninspiring view along most of the first block of S. Fifth.

A view down S. Fifth showing the two remaining houses on the block.

One reason the developer was able to execute this so-called “by right” development was that he was able to assemble the seven contiguous lots into one lot for the purposes of producing a site plan. Under provisions of the current R4C zoning, this development met most of the setback and other requirements. (Actually, the neighborhood submitted an appeal [long text here] to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which for some reason failed even to consider it.)

Now we may be able to make changes in Ann Arbor’s zoning ordinance that would prevent a similar tragedy. As reported by AnnArbor.com, the City Council has now received the report of the R4C/R2A Zoning District Advisory Committee. (Download report here.) We’ll have to hope that Council approves the changes in the zoning ordinance recommended by this citizen committee. It is important to safeguard our Central Area neighborhoods, and the others where R4C zoning exists.

But if we are to continue protection of historic structures, and to obtain the benefits of historic preservation, citizens as well as council members must support the work of the Historic District Commission as well. Their decisions have sometimes been controversial, only because the reasoning behind their guidelines is often not intuitive to some people. (The recent kerfuffle over a rail fence on the Old West Side is an example.) Their faithful monitoring of our historic districts has resulted in a better community for all of us.

To learn more about the Ann Arbor Preservation Alliance, send an email to historicA2@gmail.com.

Yes, I recall some of your struggles with this. I don’t have an explanation except that it presumably is a combination of staff not seeing this as a priority and the commission leadership not insisting on it.